In pictures: A day in the life of slum dwellers

Mar 03, 2017 10:36 IST

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Poonam and Kiran daughters of a cycle rickshaw puller do their home work on the rooftop of their shanty at a slum colony, in Noida, India. Children are often seen as harbingers of hope for families that have spent their entire lives attempting to rise out of the kind of poverty signified by slums. The population of India that lives in urban slums is expected surge to 104 million by 2017, which is 9% of the total projected national population of 1.28 billion that year. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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Hearing and speech impaired by birth, Mumtaz Begum often spends her time with her pet birds at Nizamuddin Slums. People with disabilities living in slums have little or no recourse to supportive therapies and often make do with the resources that they have. In Delhi alone, an estimated 1.7 million people live in slums, which is about 15% of the capital’s population. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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Father of four, Mohammad Nayar Alam, leaves his home at Khusrau Park to sell bhelpuri at the Nizamuddin Dargah. His meagre earnings of Rs 300 per day are barely enough to sustain his family of six. Water supply is erratic, sanitation facilities are basic, and space is at a premium. Still, people find ways and means to get by, in order to survive in the metropolis that provides them with a livelihood. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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A tuition centre operating in a slum in Noida. The teachers, Rakhi and Nisha, who run it, hope to be able to transform it into a proper school with government help. At times, both parents work multiple jobs, and children are left to their own devices. Informal neighbourhood schools step in when government schools are unavailable or ineffective. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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Class two student Roshni fills water from a handpump at Sector 17 slums in Noida. The water she fills every afternoon after school is used by her family to bathe, and wash utensils and clothes. Access to education is seen as one of the pluses of living in Delhi, even when its quality is dubious. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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Boys play badminton at Sector 17 slums in Noida. Living in crowded spaces gives rise to a rare sense of camaraderie. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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Sanju, makes fresh spices for her family of seven at slums in Bhangel, in Noida. Women often make use of spaces outside their over crowded shacks to conduct their daily chores. Taboos that strictly govern social interactions in rural India, largely seem forgotten in the urgency of an urban slum. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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Sandeep, a class five student is invested with the task of cooking rice for his family at a slum colony in Sector 16, in Noida. The Delhi Government recently announced plans to construct multi-storeyed apartments to rehabilitate slum dwellers living in Lajpat Nagar, Bhalswa, Dev Nagar, Mongol Puri and Ambedkar Nagar. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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A labourer from Bihar trims his moustache before leaving for work at a slum colony, in Noida. Slum colonies in Delhi NCR are mostly populated by migrant labourers from neighbouring states. In early February this year, it was announced that the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) will construct the apartments at the four locations. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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A boy leaves for school on his bicycle at a slum colony. Meanwhile, on February 6th, 350 slum dwellers who had lived for decades at the slums at Nehru Camp in east Delhi’s Patparganj were allotted flats in Sector 16B in Dwarka, which is many miles away. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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A young girl leaves for her afternoon shift at a local school at a slum colony, in Noida. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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A child bathes upon return from school at Sector 16 slum colony, in Noida. Living in a slum life often means going without basic sanitation facilities. It remains to be seen whether the initiative will help slum dwellers find a better quality of life. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)